“The Eagle” has looked unbeatable in his 26 professional bouts.
Khabib Nurmagomedov took his place as king of the UFC’s ultra-competitive Lightweight division last weekend at UFC 223. His win over Al Iaquinta earned him the now-undisputed belt, which the UFC stripped from an inactive Conor McGregor.
Khabib is undefeated in the UFC and trains out of one of the most legendary fight camps ever: AKA- the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose California. Out of that camp have come the Four Kings- Lightweight champion Khabib, Light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, former Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, and Former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Of the four greats, only Khabib is undefeated. And Cormier is confident he will stay that way.
“He’ll be the only guy that never loses,” he told MMAFighting. “He’s not going to lose, man. They won’t know how to deal with him. He’s going to be the only guy that goes through this whole thing without losing. Because I’m not sure he’s going to be here that long. But while he’s here, nobody’s going to beat him.”
Cormier predicts that Khabib’s first title defense will be against former champion Conor McGregor. The fight would be a sharp clash in style between striker and grappler. Conor has only faced one skilled grappler in the past, beating Chad Mendes at Featherweight on short notice.
“When I watch Conor fight Chad Mendes, Chad Mendes is a great wrestler but he’s small. He beat him up for two rounds. He beat Conor for two rounds until Conor got up. He had done that for two straight rounds on 10 days’ notice.”
Khabib has hinted that he does not plan on staying in the fight game much longer. The belt for him is now a dream accomplished, and to retire undefeated would cement him among the gods of MMA. He has yet to face a striker with McGregor’s abilities, but one does get the feeling that if a fight between the two reached the floor, it would be Khabib’s to lose.
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